


realizations

by EmmyKitten



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bad Parent Gabriel Agreste, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, LadyNoir - Freeform, also adrien has daddy issues, also reference to gorizilla, i tried to write fluff and this is what happened, implied Adrienette - Freeform, okay now here are more tags, please save my poor boy, reference to befana, reveal fic but not dramatic, this is my first ml fic please don't hurt me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25220812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmyKitten/pseuds/EmmyKitten
Summary: in which adrien goes from trophy son to angsty teenager and ladybug just wants to help her kitty.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste & Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Chat Noir & Ladybug, Chat Noir/Ladybug
Comments: 6
Kudos: 115





	realizations

It was late at night and Adrien was restless. 

He should have been tired, exhausted even. The day had been the roughest one he'd had in a while. 

News reporters had started questioning whether the relationship between him and his father was truly as warm as his father told everyone. Adrien and his father hadn't been seen together in months. So Gabriel arranged a few strategic public appearances so that the media could see them together. 

He supposed all the attention from his father was nice, considering he didn't even see him most days. Still, all he could think about all day was that it was fake. His father didn't care about his son. It was painfully obvious to Adrien with each fake smile they exchanged, with every minute of forced chatter. He could feel the tension between them, but he knew no one else could. He and his father may not have had much in common, but they were both excellent actors, trained through years of smiling through public appearances and lying through their teeth to pretend they weren't broken. Gabriel's move would work, and the frayed relationship between him and his son would remain their little secret. The news reporters would never know. 

It was easy to pretend that things between Adrien and his father were fine when his father was completely absent. He could chalk it up to his father's immense workload. He could convince himself that his father was doing it for them. But on days like this, when the truth was staring at him right in the eyes, he had no choice but to accept it. Gabriel didn't care. 

Adrien opened his eyes (which he hadn't even realized were screwed shut) and looked around, realization dawning on him. Everything in his room - the video games, the basketball court, _the second story_ \- it was all his father's way of trying to buy his love. Gabriel threw money at his son and did the bare minimum of parenting. And then turned around and called it good. Adrien wasn't the subject of any of his father's affections. He was merely a liability. 

_His father didn't care._

The weight of those words seemed to weigh on his chest, suffocating him, and for the first time, his room felt too small. He didn't know why, but what he did know was that he couldn't spend another minute surrounded by all the ways Gabriel had tried to pretend to care. He needed to get out of there.

He set out a piece of camembert for Plaag, who had been worriedly watching him for quite some time. Plaag seemed to understand what Adrien wanted and ate the cheese in silence before going to hover over his ring. A minute later, Adrien was fully transformed and out the window.

Chat Noir seemed to fly through Paris, his feet never touching the rooftops for more than a millisecond. He felt _free._

When he stopped to breathe, he found himself in view of the Dupain-Cheng Bakery. All the lights were off, so he assumed Marinette and her family were asleep. He was about to continue his run when he noticed that there was one light still on. He drew closer, out of curiosity, and realized it was coming from Marinette's balcony, where she herself was standing. 

Marinette caught sight of him and, hesitating for a second, waved. Chat waved back. He found himself getting closer and wanting to join Marinette on her balcony - he wouldn't mind having someone to talk to right now - but he stopped himself. He was a superhero. His job was to help civilians, not bother them in the middle of the night with his own problems.

He shot her another wave before turning around and continuing his run. He decided to make his way up to the Eiffel Tower to clear his head. Once he neared the base, he put on a small smile. Going up the tower was always exhilarating. A second later he was leaping from beam to beam, smiling and laughing because he felt like a kid again, back when his family wasn’t incomplete. Back when his mother was there to hold it together.

Chat stumbled for a second, lost in his thoughts, and almost lost his footing. He grabbed onto another beam and steadied himself, shaking his head. His mother was gone, and he wouldn’t be doing her any favors if he fell to his death thinking of her.

When he reached the top, he stood there for a second admiring the Parisian night. He took a deep breath and sighed. 

"Can't sleep?" a voice said from behind him, and he jumped, almost falling to his (probable) death off the edge. He turned around to find Ladybug looking at him, an amused smile adorning her face. He smiled back, glad he finally had a distraction. Talking to Ladybug always helped keep his mind off things.

Chat Noir gently took her hand, pressing a chaste kiss to her knuckle. 

"What are you doing up so late, m'lady?" he asked, purposefully ignoring her question. She looked a little sheepish before turning to look towards the Parisian skyline. 

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" she murmured softly, choosing to plop down on the ground and effectively dodging his question as well. He joined her on the ground, smiling. 

"Yes, yes it is." he said. Ladybug looked at him, then, blushing when she noticed him already looking at her. 

"Is everything....okay?" she said, seeming to search his eyes for something. He frowned. 

"Yeah, why do you ask?" he said, deciding then to look anywhere but her eyes, which were now looking at him worriedly. 

"I don't see any akumas around anywhere. Why are you transformed, Chat?" He finally gave up on trying to look away from her and met her eyes. She seemed to be trying to pull answers out of him with her gaze. He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. 

"It's nothing, m'lady. I'm fine," he told her nervously, praying that she didn't ask again so he didn't have to lie to her a third time. Although he lied to reporters on a daily basis, the idea of lying to his lady made him feel sick to his stomach. 

Ladybug looked unconvinced but seemed to decide to drop the topic. She moved her eyes back to the Parisian skyline, scooting closer to him so she could rest her head on his shoulder. They fell into a comfortable silence. 

Chat let himself relax and enjoy this moment with Ladybug, acutely aware of the weight of her head on his shoulder. It was comforting. He spared a glance at her and saw that she was smiling now. 

"You know, bugaboo, you have my mother's smile," he said offhandedly, not realizing the significance of those words. Ladybug seemed to tense, and he shifted to see what was wrong. 

She sat up straight and looked at him with thinly veiled shock. He opened his mouth to ask why, but then, her face changed. Chat reeled in surprise. She was looking at him with an expression he'd never seen directed at him before. It was soft and....relieved? Wordlessly, she took out her yo-yo and pressed a button, opening a compartment that Chat hadn’t known was there (it made sense to him, however, since Ladybug lacked pockets on her suit). She took out its contents and presented them to him.

At first, Chat thought she was giving him a gift (he certainly wouldn't have minded receiving something from his beloved lady), but upon closer examination, his eyes grew wide with realization. 

It was the lucky charm he had given to Marinette on her birthday. 

The one he'd given to Marinette in private.

That meant...

"Marinette?" he whispered, barely audible.

"Adrien." she said, a smile slowly growing on her face. "It's you." 

He was smiling too now. Before he knew what he was doing, he had scooped Ladybug - _Marinette_ \- in his arms and was holding her close. She hugged him back, seemingly too shocked to say anything more. It was really her. _Marinette was Ladybug._ He never wanted this moment to end. 

When they pulled apart, a thought occurred to Adrien. 

"Are you....disappointed?" he asked in a small voice, his eyes looking down at the ground. Marinette laughed. 

"Of course not!" she told him, playfully elbowing him. Then her eyes widened in realization.

"Are you?" she asked worriedly, her smile fading. 

Adrien cupped her cheek, smiling at her fondly. 

"I told you I'd love whoever's behind that mask, didn't I?” He picked her up and twirled her around, eliciting a giggle from her. “And how could I be disappointed when my everyday Ladybug turned out to be my actual Ladybug? There’s no one else I would have wanted you to be, Marinette," he told her, looking into her eyes imploringly and smiling even bigger when she nodded. Because he meant every word. 

There was absolutely no one in the world that could have been his Ladybug than Marinette. He didn't know why he hadn't seen it before.

He looked at her adoringly, his eyes flickering to her lips. He wondered if she'd let him kiss her right then.

Marinette smiled again - at him! - and it took everything in him not to do something he'd regret. She was looking into his eyes with wonder now, as if she couldn't quite believe what was happening. Adrien looked back at her, doing much of the same thing. 

Suddenly, she burst into giggles, probably from the surrealness of the situation (or maybe from the irony). He looked at her incredulously for a second before joining her. They soon found themselves having fallen over, laying on the ground together and giggling euphorically.

They'd probably get an earful from their kwamis when they detransformed, but that was a problem he wanted to worry about later.

Because right then, Adrien knew that out of all the ways the night could have gone, this was by far the best one.

**Author's Note:**

> since you're here, i'd love it if you checked out my other miraculous fanfic, [break me and i'll keep coming back](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29172408)


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